It was foraging. Another came. They were both large.
2 Likes
But look at them eyes, miss! 
Ah, that isn’t a drone honey bee. Wrong stripes. Hover flies are usually quite small. I will go back to my corner now…
2 Likes
Thanks for helping everyone. It is definitely a hoverfly. 
she had me fooled, I was sure it was some fancy honey bee. 
1 Like
I’d say it is going to be gorgeous!! 
Thanks for sharing.
Hahaha that’s cute 
I know it’s normal. 
You are the pond “go to” guy, and I have a question about algae. I have a little half whiskey barrel pond with some rush, a water lily, and goldfish. I was hoping that the bees would land on the lily pads, but they don’t like them, so I put a little dish with pebbles at the side of the pond. The algae has really been growing in the pond, and today I went down to clean it up, only to find my bees were
having a party in there. I looked it up and found that algae can be a real super food for bees. I’m sure you’ve had experience with algae, and I’m interested to hear your take on the subject. Here’s a video of my bees having a wonderful time!
https://ccondra.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/bees-on-algae.mp4
1 Like
Gorgeous video @claire_c, especially with the bird song - a finch, perhaps?
I know that you were asking @Wizard, and I am no pond guru, but I would suggest that the algae are not a superfood, but more of a landing board. Bees seem to love taking water by capillary action, and some of our forum members have used that in hot weather. My memory may be faulty, but I think that @skeggley uses old towels to soak water up from a bucket for his bees.
If it was my barrel, I would leave the algae in there. If you don’t have fish in there, I can’t see a problem with it. 
1 Like
I also can not confirm the benefits of algae and bees. But I can tell you that most algae is the sign of a healthy pond and not necessarily good to have around. It’s the green floating algae that gets suspended in the water that is the worst. Keeping a bale of barley straw in the water can prevent this. Really it just depends on if you want plants or not. I did read that algae is great for bees. But I also know it will kill your plants and fish.
1 Like
What about some floating plants to shade the water and absorb some nutrients? Something that can be harvested and composted so you take the nutrients out of the water.
2 Likes
My mother always put a towel over the edge of the pool for the bees which is why I put an old tea towel on the edge of the water sources which the bees usually appreciated, this year however, my neighbour set up an AP system and kept the growbed water level too high flooding it and this was the preferred source practically abandoning my offerings.
1 Like
nice, I had some aquaponics going for a while. Great clean water source.
1 Like
Got my first sting last night. 
note to self, when exiting the spa at night, shake the towel before rubbing it around your body. 
Right on the forearm.
Definitely, the more the merrier. One of my favorites is pickerel rush. It is a bog plant and edible. You also want lots of oxygen.
That’s what this is.
2 Likes
That’s a nice one. And native too, at least east of the Mississippi…
1 Like